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As Whoopi Goldberg was suspended for two weeks from her hosting duties on The View for two weeks over her recent remarks regarding the Holocaust, the decision reportedly isn’t sitting well with her fellow co-hosts.
The actress was given a two-week suspension from the popular daytime talk show on Tuesday (February 1st) after making comments that the Holocaust was “not about race” during a discussion on the show the previous day. The immediate backlash from several Jewish organizations and others online prompted Goldberg to issue a public apology through her social media accounts and offer an on-air apology during the show the next day. Joy Behar briefly addressed the situation as the show began on Wednesday (February 2nd). “You all saw the news. Whoopi will be back here in two weeks,” she said. “OK.” Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and conservative guest host Tara Setmayer then went on to discuss Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and his planned closed-door speech to the conservative Federalist Society group. Behind the scenes, however, word is that the co-hosts were ‘furious’ about the decision when it was made.
When contacted by The Daily Beast, co-host Ana Navarro-Cardenas voiced her support. “I love Whoopi Goldberg. I love The View,” she said. “This was an incredibly unfortunate incident. Whoopi is a lifelong ally to the Jewish community. She is not an antisemite. Period. I am sad. And I have nothing else to say.” ABC News president Kim Godwin made the decision to hand down the suspension, even though she noted Goldberg’s apologies and subsequent conversation with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on the show. “I appreciate their conversation and his acknowledgment of Whoopi’s efforts,” she wrote in an internal memo to staffers. “Whoopi has shown through her actions over many years that she understands the horrors of the Holocaust, and she started today’s show with that recognition. But words matter, and we must be cognizant of the impact our words have.”
Other advocates have also questioned if the suspension was necessary. Former CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman voiced his opinion that there should be more educational dialogue taking place. “Don’t punish her – educate her,” he wrote on Twitter. “All my professional life I advocated that it is more important to change minds hearts than to punish them.”
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